


untitled

by torigates



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-10
Updated: 2011-11-10
Packaged: 2017-12-31 12:30:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1031727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torigates/pseuds/torigates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They said come with us we’ll show you the moon and introduce you to Superman, and sometimes you wish they had left it at the moon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	untitled

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not even sorry.

  
They said come with us we’ll show you the moon and introduce you to Superman, and sometimes you wish they had left it at the moon.

Superman swooped down like he appeared right out of the moon, like he appeared right out of your thoughts and _can’t fly, can’t fly, can’t, why can’t I fly_ buzzed through your head like you never shook that Genomorph off your shoulder, and maybe you didn’t because you hear a lot of things and feel a lot of things that couldn’t possibly come from you, no not from you.

“Is that what I think it is?” Batman asked. You knew it was Batman even though you’ve never seen him before, just like you knew what the moon was before you ever saw it.

Like the moon, Batman is awe inspiring in a way you never could have grasped right before this moment, and when you see the Martian Manhunter comforting Superman like you’re something _to be sorry for_ you begin to understand what rage means outside of an abstract concept.

“We’ll figure something out for you,” Superman said. “The league will, I mean.”

Your rage grows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first television show her Uncle J’onn showed her was _Sesame Street_. M’gann marveled at the stupidity of Earthlings if this was the kind of programing they pressed on their children. It was asinine and patronizing...

Although Elmo _was_ pretty cute.

After that J’onn brought her more challenging things to watch; a bunch of documentaries M’gann tossed aside without much of a second glance, some French films from the 1960s that she could never quite understand, and, thankfully, a collection of sitcoms from the 1970s.

M’gann consumed the episodes with a voracious appetite. She loved the simplicity of them, how their every problem was resolved in the span of one episode. Things on Earth must be so much easier, she thought. I want to go there.

Her favourite was _Bewitched_. She was enthralled with Samantha and Darren, and their love, how it was bigger than everything that came between them, how it made everything simpler, straightforward.

She liked also, Samantha was the one with power.

I want to go there, she thought. I want to go there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Why let them tell us what to do?” you asked. “It’s simple, get on board, or get out of the way.”

With the echoes of Ginomorph control still ringing in your ears, and Superman’s rejection still stinging, you vowed that no one else is ever going to tell you what to do again. You didn’t need Superman, you didn’t need anyone. What else did those Ginomorphs create you for, anyway?

You might not be as good as Superman, but at least no one can say you were ever anyone’s sidekick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mount Justice is not what M’gann expected when she imagined coming to Earth. The mountains of Mars are wide and vast and everything on Earth seemed smaller. Except M’gann. She felt like she could spread her arms wide and touch every corner of the planet and reach all the way back to Mars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Batman said you could stay at Mount Justice and since you had no where else to go, and this place seemed just as good as anywhere else you decided that you will.

He talked a lot about the rules and how they were to live there. You didn’t hear what he says, and you wondered how much time Superman spent here. You wondered where Superman lives, and what he does, and what _you_ should do. But you don’t know, and it doesn’t sound like anyone else does either.

“Do you want to look around?” Miss Martian asked after he had left. It was just them, Robin and Kid Flash and Aqualad were all gone. You wonder why they don’t stay at Mount Justice with you and Miss Martian, but you didn’t ask that aloud and you couldn’t remember if anyone explained it to you.

“No,” you said, rising to your feet. You followed Miss Martian, not because you have to, but because she seemed to know what to do.

She talked a lot about her room and what she wanted to do with it. You didn’t know what that means, but you don’t ask.

You spent two nights sleeping in the main room before Batman explained that you could have a bedroom. You knew what a bedroom was, of course, you’d just never seen one before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“ _Get out, get out, GET OUT!_ ”

Sometimes, even after she knew she shouldn’t, M’gann would start to reach out with her mind for the others. Her mind was such a wide open space, one that she was used to sharing, and she got lonely sometimes all alone there.

She was starting to learn that people on Earth talked a lot more than they did back on Mars, but they didn’t _say_ much of anything.

M’gann liked Wally. He was funny, and cute, and he was always nice to her, but she was sure she had never heard an honest word come out of his mouth. Robin rattled on about a million different things, and M’gann would laugh along. She talked to Kaldur about life back in Atlantis. They were her teammates and she loved them, but it wasn’t the same.

She missed the closeness of another mind.

Sometimes, she sat down next to Superboy and just _imagined_ she knew what he was thinking, and that he could read her mind too.

“What?” he asked, looking at her.

 _Your eyes are so blue_ , she wanted to say. “Nothing.” She shook her head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I’m ready,” you said.

“Good,” Black Canary replied. “Because I’m here.”

She told you nothing you don’t already know, but she was still able to throw you down to the mat ten times in a row. _No wonder Superman wants nothing to do with me_ , you thought, and charged her again. Her elbow caught you in the jaw before her ankle hooked around your own bringing you slamming back down into the ground.

“You have to act,” she said. “Not react.”

“I know,” you growled, and she laughed.

“Then why are you the one eating dirt?” she asked.

You charged her again, and catch a mouthful of the ball of her hand. If you weren’t impervious you’d have a split lip and a broken nose. Probably a number of cracked ribs too. Black Canary couldn’t beat you, because you keep getting back up. She couldn’t beat you, but she was still winning.

“Pay attention,” she said.

“I am,” you said, and this time maybe you are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back home, M’gann’s sisters used to tease her for making Earth foods. Her recipes never turned out quite right; she was always having to substitute the ingredients that didn’t grow on Mars and that her Uncle J’onn couldn’t bring back.

On Earth, M’gann could cook whatever recipe she wanted, and they always turned out right (except for when she burned them). Sometimes she missed the not-right taste of her cooking back home, and the way her sisters would tease her and ask her why she even bothered with the strange Earth customs.

Now J’onn brought her not quite fresh fruit from Mars and it tasted funny and off. She missed home.

Superboy wouldn’t eat unless she put the food down right in front of him, and sometimes not even then.

“How does it taste?” M’gann asked, and he looked at her like he had forgotten she was there. Still, he smiled and ate it, and she knew no one had ever taken care of him before.

Mostly, M’gann didn’t want him to look so lost anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M’gann brought back your memories. She brought back your memories, and when she did you could swear she left a part of herself behind. You can remember feeling frantic, looking for someone. You remember knowing you have to find Superboy, because Superboy didn’t exist six months ago and has no memories. You remember that you have to find Superboy _now_.

It took you a minute to remember that you are Superboy.

After, you remembered things that you shouldn’t have. You get flashes of things that aren’t your memories, things you know the Genomorphs didn’t put into your head. These memories didn’t trouble you the same way your other thoughts, your _own_ thoughts did. They’re real, not manufactured. They’re comforting. They’re _M’gann_.

You sat down to M’gann where she was watching television in the main room, and she looked over and smiled at you.

“Hi Superboy.”

“About the other day,” you said. “In Bialya,” you paused and considered your words. M’gann regarded you patiently, waiting for you to figure out what you need to say. “I remember some things,” you said. “Some things about you.”

M’gann moved immediately closer to you, her hand on your shoulder. You looked down at it there, her tiny green hand and resisted the urge to reach out and grab it, although you weren’t sure why.

“Oh, Superboy,” she said. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to imprint any of my memories on you, I should have been more careful after everything you and the team said to me the last time about reading people’s minds. Hello, Megan! What was I thinking?”

This time you did reach out and take her hand. She stopped talking and stared down at your hands, and you couldn’t help but look too.

“Thank you,” you said.

Her cheeks stained pink, and you wanted to kiss her so much your heart could have burst wide open.

You wished she would read your mind and see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

High school wasn’t what M’gann expected. It was different from what she saw on television. She spent so much time inside fictional schools, with fictional people, and even though M’gann knew that television wasn’t the same as real life, it was her only exposure to Earth for so long, sometimes she still wished things could be just like she saw on her TV.

She always wanted to be a cheerleader. When she was a little girl she used to beg her sisters to make believe they were a squad competing together. Her sisters were too old or too disinterested and they always sent her away. Sometimes she would play by herself, tossing herself into the air with her mind, pretending her teammates were waiting below to catch her.

For one sickening moment when she felt the cold water splash over her head, she thought she wasn’t going to be on the team. Without meaning to, she felt Superboy’s heat and rage from the stands and she forgot her own disappointment and sadness and thought only, _Superboy, no!_

He crashed to the ground and the girls giggled, and asked if he was her boyfriend. When he carried her books for her, M’gann could pretend her life was just like television, until she remembered.

She didn’t have to pretend anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes when they called you Conner it took you a minute to remember that is your name now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The inside of Belle Reve was a constant reminder of why you joined the team in the first place. There were criminals locked up inside of whom M’gann had only ever heard of before.

She knew she didn’t have to be afraid. Conner was with her, Aqualad and the team were waiting right outside for her signal. She was in charge of this mission. She was in control, and there was nothing to be afraid of.

After her cover was blown, M’gann couldn’t move and she couldn’t speak but she couldn’t still hear Superboy calling her name over and over again.

_M’gann. M’gann please. Don’t leave me._

The ice cracked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kissing M’gann was the first real thing you did for you. The genomorphs didn’t teach you much about kissing, or girls, or feelings, you guess there wasn’t much need of that in a weapon. Still, you figured it out on your own and M’gann looked up at you, smiling, and alive and you just wanted to touch her, to hold her, to make sure she was okay, that she would be okay.

You just wanted to protect her.

Back at Mount Justice after everyone is gone, M’gann snuggled up next to you and sat on your lap. You could feel your heart beating fast one-two like it wanted to escape right out of your chest, and you wondered if everyone could feel this way. You wondered if Superman ever felt this way.

M’gann kissed you, her fingers roaming through your hair and you clutched desperately at her waist, and you wanted to touch her you wanted to feel her, you wanted her to know how you feel even when, _especially_ when you didn’t understand quite how you felt yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before Uncle J’onn brought her to Earth, he sat down with M’gann and talked to her about what it meant to be a superhero, and more importantly, what it meant to be a foreigner in another culture. _Alien_.

 _It’s not right_ , M’gann thought.

 _It is not_ , J’onn agreed. _But it is the way it is_.

He explained the importance of fitting in. Not hiding who they were but disguising themselves, protecting themselves. _You have seen the treatment of the White Martians_ , he thought. _It is the same. Humans cannot accept you_.

M’gann wasn’t sure she agreed, but she believed her uncle when he told her she needed to be careful.

In the cave, Black Canary explained what it meant to be superhero and a woman. Some of the things she said made M’gann blush. Some of the things she said made her angry.

“What’s wrong?” Superboy asked.

M’gann told him what her uncle said. What Black Canary said. “It’s not fair,” she said. “It’s not _right_.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, and took her hand.

 _It’s not your fault_ , she thought.

“I know,” he said. “But you’re my teammate. What makes you angry and scared makes me angry and scared.”

“Just your teammate?” she asked.

“No,” he said, drawing her closer to him. She liked the feel of his arm around her shoulders. “Not just my teammate. But you asked me to treat you that way.”

“When we’re on missions,” she said. “Yes.”

“We’re not on a mission now,” he said.

“No,” she agreed, pressing her face into his shoulder. “We’re not.”

He cupped his hands around her face and leaned down to kiss her. She thought about what her uncle had said, about fitting in on Earth, about hiding who she was. She didn’t have to hide herself with Conner, and he didn’t have to hide who he was. They could just be.

M’gann thought about how angry he had been the first time she spoke in his mind, and the way he had acted in India. They had come so far since then, the two of them. The six of them. So much had changed, so much needed to change. Sometimes it seemed scary and overwhelming, like it was all too much. More than one person could handle. More than _she_ could handle.

In the distance, she heard the sound of security system recognizing Kaldur, Artemis, Wally, and Robin. _Hello, Megan_ , she wasn’t just one person anymore, she wasn’t alone, and she didn’t have to do it all by herself. That was what Conner was for. That was what the team was for.

“Thank you,” she said.

Conner smiled, and took her hand. They had their mission.


End file.
